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T-Mobile Announces Uncarrier 8.0: Data Stash
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T-Mobile Announces Uncarrier 8.0: Data Stash

Today in a live interview T-Mobile CEO John Legere has made his eighth major announcement in their line of Uncarrier programs that try to differentiate them from the business practices of the other major US carriers. Legere described Uncarrier 8.0 as the biggest change they have made so far, and based on how big of a shift it is from how cellular data plans currently work I’m inclined to agree with him. 

The big feature being introduced with Uncarrier 8.0 is called Data Stash. As you know, when you pay for a certain amount of data from your cellular carrier, that data bucket is only good for your monthly billing cycle. If you have 3GB remaining at the end of your cycle, that data is lost when your next cycle begins. Data Stash allows users to keep their high speed data that they have unused at the end of the month, which allows them to have a greater amount of high speed data for future months. This is similar to how some prepaid carriers have operated for many years by letting users carry their minutes over to later months. Users should be aware that data will only remain valid for a year, but because it is continually rolling over every month this should not be much of an issue except for users who hope to save up in order to turn their LTE service into their home internet.

Legere has also stated that new customers will be given 10GB in their Data Stash for free. Later on in the interview Legere is now discussed various topics, including T-Mobile’s network expansion, 15 MHz FDD-LTE, and subscriber numbers.

Audience Announces eS800 Voice & Audio Processors
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Audience Announces eS800 Voice & Audio Processors

While voice calls have decreased in importance in the past few years, we’ve seen an increased need for voice processors that can properly isolate voice to enable features such as touchless controls of a phone or tablet, along with dictation and similar features. In order to better enable these features, Audience has introduced a new eS800 line of voice and audio processors. At a high level, there are a few key features that are enabled by this new audio processor, namely improved voice recognition at large distances, during media playback, and automatic focusing on the speaker.

There are also a few other features that this new line of ICs enables, namely improved always-on hotword detection as it can now train its detection to only activate to a specific person when using a user-trained keyword. On the previous eS700 series, this was only possible with an OEM-set keyword. There are also significant improvements to noise suppression overall, as the voice processor is better-equipped to deal with varying hand position and other challenging conditions. Audience noted that this level of noise suppression meant that their solution is one of the few to pass carrier testing for voice quality, as opposed to other popular solutions on the market. These features are enabled by the use of artificial neural network technology, which is definitely something I haven’t seen before.

While both announced ICs of the eS800 have these voice capabilities, the eS804 is designed to be a voice processor, while the eS854 has an additional audio codec that supports universal headset detection and can enable more button signalling over the 3.5mm jack. There’s also an integrated stereo amp, which can drive speakers although it’s unclear how this compares with the popular NXP solutions on the market. The eS800 line of voice and audio processors should appear in smartphones and tablets in the coming months.

Audience Announces eS800 Voice & Audio Processors
  • Comments are Closed

Audience Announces eS800 Voice & Audio Processors

While voice calls have decreased in importance in the past few years, we’ve seen an increased need for voice processors that can properly isolate voice to enable features such as touchless controls of a phone or tablet, along with dictation and similar features. In order to better enable these features, Audience has introduced a new eS800 line of voice and audio processors. At a high level, there are a few key features that are enabled by this new audio processor, namely improved voice recognition at large distances, during media playback, and automatic focusing on the speaker.

There are also a few other features that this new line of ICs enables, namely improved always-on hotword detection as it can now train its detection to only activate to a specific person when using a user-trained keyword. On the previous eS700 series, this was only possible with an OEM-set keyword. There are also significant improvements to noise suppression overall, as the voice processor is better-equipped to deal with varying hand position and other challenging conditions. Audience noted that this level of noise suppression meant that their solution is one of the few to pass carrier testing for voice quality, as opposed to other popular solutions on the market. These features are enabled by the use of artificial neural network technology, which is definitely something I haven’t seen before.

While both announced ICs of the eS800 have these voice capabilities, the eS804 is designed to be a voice processor, while the eS854 has an additional audio codec that supports universal headset detection and can enable more button signalling over the 3.5mm jack. There’s also an integrated stereo amp, which can drive speakers although it’s unclear how this compares with the popular NXP solutions on the market. The eS800 line of voice and audio processors should appear in smartphones and tablets in the coming months.